AS the South China Morning Post celebrates its 90th birthday, there is an eerily familiar feel about the coverage of the stock market.
As investors, dealers and the public reeled in amazement at the speed at which share prices soared and index barriers were shattered last month, reports of earlier booms show that the events of October 1993 are nothing new - it is just that the numbers are bigger.
The stock market as front page news is, however, a fairly recent addition to the Post's coverage. Before World War II, readers were content with a small list of major price changes, a one-paragraph market report and slightly longer lists of prices in London and New York.
Even in the mid-1950s, when the cult of the equity was being born, shipping items were more relevant than stock market intelligence.
But as the market grew and, with it, the interest of the individual investors, the Post began to widen its coverage of stock prices and company news.
In February, 1969, Business News became a separate pull-out, although of only four pages, and it was revamped as the Business Post in June, 1986.